Important Information

This site uses cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. We also use cookies to ensure we show you
advertising that is relevant to you. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to
receive all cookies on the irishtimes.com website. However, if you would like to, you can
change your cookie settings at any time. For more information see our Cookie Policy.

If you only do one thing this weekend … go to the dog

Laurence Mackin

Jazz: It’s that in-between time of year, when there’s a pause to draw breath after the madness of Halloween and the autumn halcyon of arts and theatre festivals, and it’s a chance to prepare for the onslaught of the C-word season, right?

Wrong. The place is coming down with decent gigs, exhibitions and events over the next few weeks. No sleep till New Year so.

On the jazz front, there are two tours worth checking out over the weekend. Redivider (you can fiddle about with upper and lower case letters all you want lads, I’m not playing along) are touring this weekend with a selection of guests. Tomorrow night (Friday), they are in the Stables in Mullingar with folk player Tommy Moore. On Saturday they head to Cork to play the Roundy with Paul Dunlea, and on Sunday it’s back to the capital to prop up the Whelans Upstairs bar with Oko.

For Andreas Varady and Martin Taylor, it’s a strictly guitar affair. The pair are in the Black Box in Belfast on Friday, the Helix in Dublin on Saturday, and in the Model, Sligo on Sunday. Martin Taylor will be familiar to most jazz fans, and if the 14-year-old Varady is still a mystery to you, let this excellent article by Fionola Meredith open a few doors.

Film: Tonight sees the Kinopolis Polish Film Festival kick into action. If you’re reading this, you have already missed tonight’s screening of Battle Of Warsaw 1920, but you can still see the film because owing to demand the cinema will be showing it until November 10th. Saturday sees The Hour Glass Sanatorium by Wojciech Hass in the IFI, followed by a Krzystof Kieslowski double header, with Camera Buff followed by A Short Film About Killing. The selection is larger on Sunday, with The Flying Machine in Cineworld, and a slew of animations in the IFI, including Little Postman, Scarecrow, and just what the hell is in Zbigniev’s Wardrobe? The cheerfully titled Suicide Room closes out the festival that evening back in Cineworld. Click here for more info.

Theatre: Pan Pan has been getting rave reviews in Australia of all places for its off-kilter take on Hamlet, which is returning here for a lap of honour. The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane gives the title role to whomever survives a rigorous casting process involving the audience (never ask for their opinion – has X Factor taught us nothing? Oh.) There’s absolutely no way this unhinged show should work, and yet it doesn’t just survive, it thrives. It’s at the Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire on Friday and Saturday. My money is on the dog.

Reading: Speaking of dogs, they are something of an obsession for Eileen Battersby, who is having a public interview with author Jeffrey Eugenides, author of The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex, which will be followed by a reading from his latest work, The Marriage Plot. It’s at the Hugh Lane Gallery on Saturday at 3pm. Admission is a pittance of €3.

And let us end on a theatrical note. This video is the last interview ever by one of the greatest actors ever – Orson Welles. In a well-known and utterly charming conversation with Merv Griffin, he reflects on his life and work in cheerful fashion, including the gig that got the whole thing started – a stint in the Gate Theatre in Dublin. The terrible part is he died just a few hours later. This is a gorgeous piece of archive material.

Hi Laurence – At the risk of being pedantic Orson Welles’s big break in Dublin was at the Gate – not at the Abbey – Although he did do some scenic painting for the Abbey he never appeared on stage there. It was a time he was to refer to fondly time and time again – check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRabulURk3I skip to 4:19 and hear what he has to say about the experience of being onstage in Dublin. It was in October 1931 and he played the role of Archduke in an adaptation of Lion Feuchtwanger’s novel, Jew Suss. The TV show is from 1955. But the Merv Griffin interview is pure gold too. So thanks for posting. PK